a?" questioned Grace, giving her
companion a quick glance of inquiry.

"Yes."

"I think we are nearing the spot to which I referred. Keep your eyes
open and move slowly. Should we find nothing there, we will walk along a
little way off the trail, each taking a side. There!"

Grace pointed to a spot where the bushes had been lately crushed down.
She then laid a restraining hand on her companion's arm, and there they
stood for a few moments, fixing the picture of the scene in their minds.

Grace finally parted the bushes and looked in, Miss Briggs peering over
her shoulders. Using extreme caution they stepped into the bushes, to
one side of the disturbed spot, and there Grace got down on her knees
and examined the ground with infinite pains. She then crawled along a
short distance, following the trail that had been made by whoever had
passed through there.

"How far are you going?" asked Elfreda.

"I don't know."

Grace's search led her a full five hundred yards into the thicket, she
halting only when she came to a spot where the brush had been trampled
down over several yards of space. The sound of a stream could be heard
close at hand.

An examination of the ground there gave Grace a fresh clue, and, after
stepping over to the brook and gazing at it briefly, she announced
herself as ready to go back.

"What now?" asked Elfreda.

"After I get something we will return to camp. We must hold a
consultation. I do not feel like deciding this problem alone."

"I know you have made a discovery, but beyond the fact that some one has
trampled down the bushes beside the trail, and that a horse has been
standing where we are now, I must confess that I am no wiser than
before."

"You have done very well," smiled Grace. "Come with me and I will
enlighten you further."

They walked briskly back to the edge of the trail where they had first
found the bushes disturbed.

"Two men have stood here. If you will scrutinize the ground you will see
the imprint of their hobnailed boots. They stood facing each other, just
as you and I are doing at this moment. All at once they turned facing
the trail and took a step toward it."

"Wait a moment! Wait a moment! You are going too fast for me, Grace
Harlowe. Are you gifted with second sight that you know all this?"

"J. Elfreda, for goodness' sake use your eyes. The footprints are so
plain that all you have to do, to understand, is to look at them. They
tell the whole story up